Saturday, December 3, 2011

Facebook Scams


Millions of people a day use Facebook for socializing and business. Including myself. Most of us are moral, ethical individuals but not all. It is a sad state when we have to be on the look out for those that only want to cause us harm in some way.

Today while eating lunch I happen to come across a TV show on HLN with Clark Howard. He does a regular segment on HLN and I have watched his show before. Today I was paying half attention until I heard Facebook Scams. My ears perked up and my eyes focused on the TV screen.

This topic, of course, was of interest to me since I use Facebook. The scam he was talking about had to do with iPads and/or iPhones. As soon as I heard it I remembered some time back getting a private message about just this same thing. I had not responded to the message and had deleted it.

I thought if I had a copy of the message I could include it in this post so everyone could see what it looks like. To my surprise after logging into Facebook this afternoon there was a new message for me and it was another message about a free iPhone. Great!!!! Now I can show you what it says.

CAUTION: DO NOT CLICK THE LICK
"greetings, since you are as well a friend of John I'll tell u what exactly I discovered. that website http://www.facebook.com/pages/1144466119/233941543337782 is messing up right now and giving away an i phone5 to persons which usually are on face book for nothing...all they will want is your opinion about the iPhone5 and u can keep it permanently. but u should hurry up before they shut it."
iPhone Scam


Note the grammar in the message. I have no idea what 'John' this message is referring to. Could be a pimp for all I know. (No, I don't think I know any pimps.) I realize that this type of message or post is very enticing but beware. It is better to be cautious than to get wrapped up in a scam like this. Report the message or wall post and then delete it.

You should be very careful when using any social site or responding to an email. If the message sounds to good it is probably not good for you.

By the way, according to Clark, not only do you get scammed but when you click on the link a message will go out to all your friends and connections with the same message. Also, you have just given the scammers access to your computer. Not good!!

I hope you have not already fallen for this type of scam. If you have you can go to Clark's website and look for scams. A solution is posted to get rid of this problem. Sorry, I found it one time and for the life of me I can't find it again. But, I know it is there. You just have to look for it.

Let me know what you think about scammers that pray on innocent people by leaving a comment below. Thanks.

Elaine